DOS for commercial use

[Guest]

I am developing an Operating System to sell in QuickBasic, but I wanted it to be a bootable setup off a floppy disk. I'm guessing I would be sued if I used MS-DOS, so does anyone know a version of DOS for commercial use?

 

[GhislainG]

Have you tried FreeDOS? http://www.freedos.org/

 

[rgd1101]

You writing something in quickbasic and want to sell it?

FreeDos is open source, I'm not sure if you can license it with your software.

 

[USAFRet]

Let's break this down, phrase by phrase...

I am developing an Operating System

You're creating a whole new operating system?
For what hardware platform?

to sell

You have some very stiff competition.
Windows, Linux, Apple, Android.
Who is your target market?

in QuickBasic

OK, this I gotta see...

a bootable setup off a floppy disk.

For all 3 of you in the western world that still have a functioning floppy drive

I'm guessing I would be sued if I used MS-DOS, so does anyone know a version of DOS for commercial use?

FreeDOS?

But given the right contract and enough licensing money...anything is possible to use.

If this is a whole OS that you are creating, what do you need DOS, of any flavor, for?

 

[GhislainG]

It obviously isn't a real OS because that can't be written in QuickBasic.

 

[Guest]

It obviously isn't a real OS because that can't be written in QuickBasic.

It's not exactly an multitasking OS.
It's kind of like GEOS for the commodore because it just makes it easier to access things instead of going into a prompt and looking for each file.

 

[USAFRet]

It obviously isn't a real OS because that can't be written in QuickBasic.

It's not exactly an multitasking OS.
It's kind of like GEOS for the commodore because it just makes it easier to access things instead of going into a prompt and looking for each file.

So a menu system.
Sort of like Windows, before Windows.

There were a zillion of those for various flavors of DOS.

You can use regular DOS for this. There would seem to be no licensing issues. You're not modifying the OS source code.

I am unsure of who you would be selling this to, though.

 

[Guest]

Let's break this down, phrase by phrase...

I am developing an Operating System

You're creating a whole new operating system?
For what hardware platform?

to sell

You have some very stiff competition.
Windows, Linux, Apple, Android.
Who is your target market?

in QuickBasic

OK, this I gotta see...

a bootable setup off a floppy disk.

For all 3 of you in the western world that still have a functioning floppy drive

I'm guessing I would be sued if I used MS-DOS, so does anyone know a version of DOS for commercial use?

FreeDOS?

But given the right contract and enough licensing money...anything is possible to use.

If this is a whole OS that you are creating, what do you need DOS, of any flavor, for?

This operating system is designed for older computers (Less than 32MB of ram) that will be actively developed so you can still use it. It would probably be the most helpful in a school atmosphere (Well, elementary school) for the students to use.

It's targeted towards schools with older computers that just can't run non-supported operating systems anymore due to them not receiving updates.

I'm going to start off with QuickBasic, but if necessary, I will switch to Assembly or C++.

Like I said before though, most schools with old computers still have functioning floppy drives.

And I'm trying to use a version of DOS so it can boot into the OS (kind of like Windows 3.1).

 

[GhislainG]

It's an application or a simulator because you can't code anything that's even close to an OS in QuickBasic. I presume that your goal is to sell your application on a bootable DOS floppy for convenience. Will you also make it available on a CD because newer PCs don't include a floppy.

 

[Guest]

It obviously isn't a real OS because that can't be written in QuickBasic.

It's not exactly an multitasking OS.
It's kind of like GEOS for the commodore because it just makes it easier to access things instead of going into a prompt and looking for each file.

So a menu system.
Sort of like Windows, before Windows.

There were a zillion of those for various flavors of DOS.

You can use regular DOS for this. There would seem to be no licensing issues. You're not modifying the OS source code.

I am unsure of who you would be selling this to, though.

It would be sold to schools with old computers, but I wanted it to be bootable, and I am assuming that Microsoft wouldn't like me including their command.com and msdos.sys on my floppy disk.

 

[USAFRet]

You just include the command to start your thing in the boot.ini file.
Right after the OS loads up, it then opens up your menu thing.

 

[GhislainG]

You are correct; you'd most likely need a licence, but it may be free for schools.

 

[Guest]

You just include the command to start your thing in the boot.ini file.
Right after the OS loads up, it then opens up your menu thing.

How would I make the boot.ini load my program in DOS?

 

[GhislainG]

You meant Autoexec.bat because boot.ini is a Windows file, not a DOS file. Just add the name of the executable in autoexec.bat; that hasn't changed since DOS was released a very long time ago.

 

[USAFRet]

You just include the command to start your thing in the boot.ini file.
Right after the OS loads up, it then opens up your menu thing.

How would I make the boot.ini load my program in DOS?

oops...I actually meant CONFIG.SYS or autoexec.bat.
You put a call to your .exe or .bat in the autoexec.bat file.
This runs all by itself when the OS stars up. Your menuing system would then appear.

As said, though...there are a zillion of these, for free

 

[USAFRet]

You meant Autoexec.bat because boot.ini is a Windows file, not a DOS file. Just add the name of the executable in autoexec.bat; that hasn't changed since DOS was released a very long time ago.

Yeah, it's been so long I forgot which one...

 

[Guest]

You meant Autoexec.bat because boot.ini is a Windows file, not a DOS file. Just add the name of the executable in autoexec.bat; that hasn't changed since DOS was released a very long time ago.

Yeah, it's been so long I forgot which one...

So that make me allowed to distribute just the autoexec.bat (and msdos.sys) so I can make my program bootable?

 

[USAFRet]

So that make me allowed to distribute just the autoexec.bat (and msdos.sys) so I can make my program bootable?

Your program doesn't need to be 'bootable'.
It is simply started up AFTER the actual OS starts up.

All transparent to the user.
The user never sees the standard 'DOS' command line. Just your menuing application.

 

[GhislainG]

You meant Autoexec.bat because boot.ini is a Windows file, not a DOS file. Just add the name of the executable in autoexec.bat; that hasn't changed since DOS was released a very long time ago.

Yeah, it's been so long I forgot which one...

So that make me allowed to distribute just the autoexec.bat (and msdos.sys) so I can make my program bootable?

You need all DOS files, not only msdos.sys. If they already have DOS, then add it as a menu option (you'll have to edit their menu or provide detailed instructions, but an issue is the large number of DOS menus) or provide your own autoexec.bat if your application is all they'll use.